The Regulators’ Alliance for Progressing Infrastructure Development (RAPID) has agreed to a request from Yorkshire Water to delay the Gate 2 submission date for the South Yorkshire Sources Strategic Resource Option Yorkshire Water is developing with Severn Trent Water by 9 months to March 2027.
In March 2026, RAPID began transitioning SROs to a new combined gated process that brings together the RAPID gates and Ofwat’s Major Projects stages under the Major Water Infrastructure Programme.
The collaborative South Yorkshire Sources scheme in the Derbyshire Derwent Valley is in the very early stages of development.
Following a checkpoint meeting on 29 July 2026, Yorkshire Water wrote to RAPID on 25th August formally notifying the regulators of a change to the South Yorkshire Sources Gate B midpoint date.
The water company told RAPID it understood that recent Ofwat correspondence setting out revised milestones for Gate B through Gate D submissions “did not satisfy the letter exchange requirements associated with this specific midpoint date change.”
According to Yorkshire Water, the date reflects the current programme assumptions and alignment across stakeholders and remains subject to ongoing programme development and refinement. A detailed and updated programme plan will be provided as part of the Gate B submission.
The South Yorkshire Sources SRO is now in the Major Water Infrastructure Programme (MWIP) - in March 2026, in response to feedback from solution owners, RAPID and Ofwat’s Major Projects team moved to a new combined gated process.
RAPID replied to Yorkshire Water yesterday in a letter dated 17September about the proposed indicative MWIP midpoint review submission date of 31 March 2027, noting previous discussions about the changes to SYS's scope since the gate two submission date was last proposed, and that further variations of sub-options are now being explored.
The letter says:
“We acknowledge that this will help the solution reach a more robust decision on which option to progress. Therefore, in line with our previous oral agreement, we consider it reasonable to formally change the MWIP midpoint review (previously gate two) submission date to 31 March 2027.”
However, RAPID cautioned that the 31 March 2027 submission date is currently indicative AND IF further delays to the MWIP midpoint review submission date are necessary, another letter exchange will be needed, adding “We would therefore encourage you to communicate delays to RAPID as soon as they become known.”